Game Preview
• Fresh off a 13-7 victory over Boston U. a week ago, Navy (4-5, 3-3 Patriot League) will kick off a stretch of three consecutive games against nationally-ranked opponents when it battles No. 1-ranked Loyola (9-1, 5-0 PL) on Saturday. Action is slated for 12:00 pm at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
• The game will be streamed online for FREE via PatriotLeague.TV and NavySports.com. Live stats will also be available at NavySports.com.
• The Mids snapped a three-game losing skid last Saturday when they made their inaugural trip to Nickerson Field and dealt the Boston University Terriers a 13-7 loss. Eight different players scored goals for the Midshipmen, including defensemen Pat Kiernan and Jules Godino, while sophomore attackman T.J. Hanzsche produced his third hat trick of the year.
• Loyola earned its ninth straight win by scoring a 10-8 victory over Colgate on the road last Saturday. After trailing 5-4 in the early minutes of the third quarter, the Greyhounds staged a 4-0 run and took the lead for good as Loyola secured a spot in the Patriot League Tournament in its first season as a member of the conference.

Taking the Field In …
10 Navy has lost just five games (58-5) when scoring 10 or more goals since the start of the 2004 season … Navy is 12-0 under Sowell when scoring 10 or more goals (5-0 in 2012, 3-0 in 2013, 4-0 in 2014).
9 Senior co-captain Pat Kiernan stands 9th on Navy’s career ground balls list with 166 … it’s the most ground balls by a Navy player since William Wallace set the record with 222 from 2004-07.
8 8 of Gabe Voumard’s 10 goals this season have been unassisted … over his three-year career, 22 of his 27 goals have been unassisted.
7 Just 2 opponents have won the faceoff battle against the Mids this season, however Navy has lost 7 straight games when the opponent has won more draws.
6 Just 6 Navy players have scored 80 goals and dealt out 50 assists … senior attackmanSam Jones needs just 1 goal to add his name to the list (79G, 54A)
5 Sam Jones has scored all but 5 of his points this year at home … he has punched in 26 (16-10) of his 31 (17-14) points in front of his hometown crowd.
4 4 of Patrick Keena’s 9 points this spring have come on extra-man offense, scoring a goal and adding 3 assists.
3 Sophomore attackman T.J. Hanzsche is coming off his 3rd hat trick of the season … meanwhile, he has produced at least one point in 15 consecutive games.
2 The last two games between Navy and Loyola have been decided by a combined 2 points … the Greyhounds defeated Navy 8-7 OT in 2010 and 9-8 in 2011.
1 With games over the next month against #1 Loyola (9-1), #4 Maryland (9-1), #10 Johns Hopkins (5-3) and #18 Army (6-3), Navy stands No. 1 in the country for the toughest remaining schedule. Those four teams have a combined record of 29-8.

Scouting the Greyhounds
• Under the direction of ninth-year head coach Charley Toomey, the Loyola Greyhounds enter today’s matchup as the No. 1-ranked team in the country and are riding a nation’s-best (along with Cornell) nine-game winning streak. Loyola opened the season with a controversial 14-13 overtime loss at Virginia on Feb. 6 and have rolled since. The Greyhounds have wins over Penn State (12-11 OT), Towson (20-4), Holy Cross (16-4), Lehigh (14-7), Duke (14-7), Army (7-6), Georgetown (10-9), Lafayette (21-4) and Colgate (10-8).
• The preseason Patriot League favorite, the Greyhounds are atop the conference standings as the lone unbeaten in league play at 5-0. Loyola is the only school who has secured a spot in the six-team Patriot League Tournament slated for the week of April 21.
• Loyola is ranked among the nation’s top 5 in eight of the 15 statistical categories. The Greyhounds are ranked No. 1 in turnovers per game (10.20), No. 2 in winning percentage (.900), No. 3 in points per game (21.80) and scoring margin (+6.30), No. 4 in assists per game (8.10), clearing percentage (.931) and scoring defense (7.40) and fifth in scoring offense (13.70). If there was a chink in the armor, it would be the Greyhounds’ man-down defense whish is ranked 53rd (.565).
• Attackmen Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello complement one another quite nicely as Ward leads the team with 44 points on 11 goals and 33 assists, while Pontrello has produced 43 points on 37 goals and six assists. Ward is 10th nationally in poins per game (4.40) and third in assists per game (3.30), while Pontrello stands 11th in points per game (4.30) and is second in goals per game (3.70).
• Senior keeper Jack Runkel is ranked fourth nationally in goals-against average, giving up 7.24 goals per game and his 60.7 save percentage is the fourth best in the country. As a team, Loyola has given up double digits just twice this season, those coming in the first two games of the season.

Navy vs. Loyola – The Series
• The two programs are meeting for just the seventh time and the first time under third-year Navy head coach Rick Sowell.
• The series is split at three wins apiece, as Navy won the first three games and Loyola has won the last three.
• Saturday’s contest marks the series’ sixth game to be played in Annapolis. The only game played on Loyola soil was in 2011.
• The two programs first met on May 6, 1939, with Navy scoring a 14-4 victory. The Mids also took wins over Loyola in 1942 (12-8) and 1943 (8-1). However, the two teams would not meet again until the NCAA Tournament in 1993. The Greyhounds dealt the Mids a 19-8 to end their season.
• The two programs rekindled the series in 2010 with Loyola scoring an 8-7 decision in overtime and a year later the Greyhounds earned a 9-8 come-from-behind win over the Mids in Baltimore.

2011 Navy-Loyola Recap
• Fourteenth-ranked Loyola overcame a five-goal deficit to earn a 9-8 victory over Navy on Feb. 19, 2011. A goal by attackman Patrick Fanshaw with 1:08 remaining in the contest sealed the win for the Greyhounds.
• Navy took 17 of its 24 shots in the opening half and scored seven goals. Meanwhile, in the second half, Navy lost nine of the 10 faceoffs and managed just seven shots in the entire half. In the third quarter alone, Loyola outshot the Mids, 16-1, and owned a 10-1 ground ball advantage.
• A goal by Mike Sawyer at the 6:46 mark sparked a four-goal run by the Greyhounds in the third quarter and was capped by a goal by Fanshaw with 3.7 seconds left in the period that knotted the game at seven apiece.
• Loyola draw specialist John Schiavone won all five faceoffs in the third quarter to keep the ball out of Navy’s hands. In fact, Navy got off just one shot in the third quarter while throwing the ball away five times.
• The Mids fought their way back and after more than 28 minutes of being held scoreless,Sam Jones found sophomore midfielder Jay Mann who unleashed a long bounce shot that snuck its way in at 7:48.
• The game remained deadlocked at 8-8 for nearly seven minutes before Chris Basler would find Fanshaw who exposed a missed switch by Navy and stuck a lefty shot past Wickham for the game-winner (1:08).
• Navy did have one last shot with five seconds to go in the game, but a shot by Andy Warner was snatched out of the air by keeper Jake Hagelin to preserve the win.

2004 Squad to Be Honored
• The 2004 Navy lacrosse team will be recognized at halftime of next Saturday’s home game against Loyola.
• Most considered the Mids’ season a Cinderella story. But the blood, sweat and tears spoke volumes for the Navy squad that fought to play in the program’s first National Championship game since 1975.
• Over the course of the season, several milestones were achieved, including winning a school-record 15 games. In addition to recording the most wins in Academy history, Navy earned its highest ranking — No. 2 — for five-consecutive weeks. Its 9-6 win over Maryland in College Park was the program’s first win over a No. 1-ranked program and one-of-six Navy wins over top-10 ranked teams.
• Along the way, the Mids scored an 18-10 win on the road against ninth-ranked Army in what was the seventh win amidst a 13-game winning streak against their arch rivals (1998-07).
• After sweeping through the Patriot League with a 7-0 record in its first season as a member of the league, Navy conquered Colgate and Hobart in the league’s postseason tourney to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
• By virtue of its Patriot League Tournament title, Navy earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in what was its first appearance in the postseason tournament since 1999.
• The Midshipmen went on to gain the nation’s support as they fought their way through the NCAA Tournament, first defeating Penn handily, 11-5, at home and then surviving a battle against seventh-seeded Cornell (6-5) on the Big Red’s home turf. Navy made it to the coveted national semifinals where it withstood multiple rallies by eighth-ranked Princeton to earn an 8-7 victory and punch its ticket to play in the NCAA Championship Game. In a back and forth contest, Syracuse scored three goals with under five minutes remaining in the game to edge the Mids, 14-13, with better than 40,000 fans looking on.
• Seven Midshipmen garnered All-America honors, including keeper Matt Russell who was named a First-Team All-American and the winner of the Ens. C. Markland Kelly Award as the nation’s top goalkeeper. Ian Dingman (Second Team), Ben Bailey (Third Team), Mitch Hendler (Third Team), Joe Bossi (Honorable Mention), Graham Gill (Honorable Mention) and Steve Looney (Honorable Mention) also garnered All-America recognition. Meanwhile, Richie Meade was the recipient of the Morris Touchstone Memorial Award, given to the National Coach of the Year.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Seven different players scored for the Midshipmen, but it would not be enough to stifle a potent Colgate offense that dealt Navy a 10-7 loss in men’s lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Navy fell to 3-5 on the year, including 2-3 in Patriot League action, while the Raiders, who are ranked 18th in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, improved to 7-2 and 3-1 in conference play.

“We did an awful lot of good things today, but give credit to Colgate who just made more plays than us,” said third-year Navy head coach Rick Sowell. “Overall there are some good things that we did today and we need to stay the course.”

The Midshipmen looked to have the hot hand early, as they opened up a 2-0 lead six minutes into the contest. Senior attackman Sam Jones (Annapolis, Md.) scored his 16th goal of the season just under two minutes into the game and classmate Pat Durkin(Germantown, Md.) punched in an unassisted goal at 8:57.

Colgate answered Durkin’s goal with an uncontested shot by leading scorer Ryan Walsh at the 7:15 mark. With the goal, Walsh extended his streak of consecutive games with a point to 42 which is the fourth-longest active streak in Div. I lacrosse this season.

Navy pushed its lead back to two when Durkin carried the ball down the right side of the box and found senior attackTucker Hull (Charlotte, N.C.) anchored on the left crease and Hull fired in his 70th collegiate goal at the 3:35 mark. Hull now joins the ranks of just 12 players in Div. I lax this season who have amassed 70 goals and 50 assists over their careers.

Colgate, however, would score the final two goals of the first period, including a goal by sophomore middie Eric Foote with 44.2 seconds remaining in the quarter, to even the score at 3-3.

The Raiders scored on a high-to-high shot by Brendon McCann to open the second quarter and take its first lead of the contest at 13:19.

Navy’s T.J. Hanzsche (Berwyn, Pa.) answered at the 11:51 mark when he curled around the right side of the cage and punched in his shot from seven yards out. The goal extended Hanzsche’s point/goal-scoring streak to 14 straight games.

That goal, however, would be Navy’s last for more than 30 minutes of action, and Navy would score the next three goals to take a 7-4 lead less than three minutes into the fourth quarter.

“I thought we picked up right where we left off in practice this week and scored a few early,” said Sowell. “Unfortunately we had that long drought and Colgate had a number of quality possessions. They are good all around, but in particular they have a solid offense.”

Navy finally found the back of the net at 11:11 in the fourth quarter and closed to within two (5-7) when senior midfielderAustin Heneveld (East Hampton, N.Y.) split the double team on the right wing and sent his shot past Colgate rookie goalkeeper Brandon Burke.

Colgate, who had five different goal scorers in the game, saw three different players stick goals over a five-minute span to give the Raiders a 10-5 advantage.

The Mids tried to rally over the final two minutes of the contest, as a transition goal by senior long pole Pat Kiernan(Ridgewood, N.J.) and a faceoff win and goal by freshman Brady Dove (Stevensville, Md.) trimmed the lead to three with 1:47 to play in the game, but it would not be enough to overcome the deficit.

McCann and Foote led the way for Colgate with three goals apiece, while Burke was solid in goal with seven saves.

Navy keeper John Connors (Bellmore, N.Y.) made nine stops, including four each in the second and fourth quarters. Connors also caused a pair of Colgate turnovers, while Kiernan forced three.

The faceoff game ended nearly even as Colgate junior Alex Kinnealey won 11 draws, while Dove won 10 for the Mids. Kinnealey took control early in the game, winning eight of the 11 draws in the first 30 minutes of action, however Dove won seven of the 10 in the second half. Kinnealey came into the contest winning 61.3 percent of his faceoffs, while Dove had won 61.0 percent.

“We anticipated if (the faceoff battle) being a big challenge for us,” said Sowell. “Brady has been great all season for us, but today he came up against a matchup that gave him some trouble. Sometimes you come across a player that trumps your move. I thought he did a good job of adjusting in the second half.”

The Mids will be back in action next Saturday when they make the trek to north to face Boston U. in the inaugural game between the two programs. Faceoff is slated for 1:00 pm.

Game Preview
• After playing its last two games on the road, the Navy men’s lacrosse team (3-4, 2-2 Patriot League) returns home Saturday to battle conference foe Colgate (6-2, 2-1 PL). Faceoff is slated for 12:00 pm at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
• The game will be streamed online for FREE via PatriotLeague.TV and NavySports.com. Live stats will also be available at NavySports.com.
• The Mids’ struggles with road play continued last week with a pair of road losses to Towson (14-9) and Lehigh (13-2). Sophomore attack T.J. Hanzsche handled the highlights for the Mids, scoring both of the Mids’ goals as he pushed his consecutives games with a point (and goal) to 12.
• Colgate is coming off a 15-10 loss against No. 4 Cornell this past Tuesday, snapping a four-game winning streak by the Raiders. Colgate won those four games (Bucknell, Hobart, Boston U. and Binghamton) by a combined of six goals.

Meet the Mids Set for Saturday
• Navy will hold its annual Meet the Mids event following its game against Colgate on Saturday.
• Members of the Navy men’s lacrosse team will be available for autographs on the Blue Concourse, with the first 300 kids in line for the postgame autograph session receiving a Navy lacrosse “Meet the Mids” t-shirt, compliments of Annapolis area Papa John’s and Chick-fil-A.
• For more information on the event or to purchase tickets, call 1-800-US4-NAVY or visit NavySports.com(.)

Taking the Field In …
10 – Navy has lost just five games (57-5) when scoring 10 or more goals since the start of the 2004 season … Navy is 11-0 under Sowell when scoring 10 or more goals (5-0 in 2012, 3-0 in 2013, 3-0 in 2014).
9 – The Mids have reached double digits in 9 of the 16 games they have played against Colgate, winning all 9 of the games.
8 – Navy is 8-6 under third-year head coach Rick Sowell when leading after the first quarter of play. The Mids have held the lead after the first 15 minutes of action if 5 of their 7 games this season and own a 3-2 mark in those contests.
7 – Among starting attack Sam Jones’ 15 goals this season, 7 have been unassisted. As a team, 31 of Navy’s 75 goals (41.3) have been unassisted.
6 – Freshman faceoff specialist Brady Dove, who is Navy’s all-time freshman faceoff wins leader, needs 6 wins on Saturday to become just the 14th player in school history to win 100 draws over the span of a career.
5 – Senior midfielder Pat Durkin has scored 5 goals this season and all 5 have been scored at home.
4 – Senior attack Tucker Hull needs 4 goals to join Navy’s all-time goals scored list with 73. He would also join teammate Sam Jones as one of just nine active NCAA players to score 70 plus goals and register 50 assists.
3 – Jones needs just 3 points to become only the seventh player in school history to reach the 30-point milestone in each of his four seasons and the first sinceNick Mirabito (2005-08).
2 – Sowell is 2 wins from earning his 100th collegiate victory. He owns a 98-99 record in 15 years as a head coach.
1 – Navy senior long pole Pat Kiernan stands No. 1 on Navy’s career caused turnovers list with61 over his four year career. He leads Navy this season with 10 takeaways.

Scouting the Raiders
• In his third season as head coach at Colgate, Mike Murphy has led the Raiders to a 6-2 mark winning four in a row prior to Tuesday night’s 15-10 loss to fourth-ranked Cornell. In addition to the loss again The Big Red, Colgate dropped an 8-7 decision to Lafayette in its Patriot League opener on Feb. 22.
• Colgate owns a 2-1 Patriot League mark, picking up wins over Bucknell (9-8) and Boston U. (7-5), while stumbling against Lafayette (8-7).
• Anchoring the Colgate offense is junior All-Patriot League attackman Ryan Walsh who has posted 28 points on 18 goals and 10 assists. He enters today’s game boasting a 41-game point-scoring streak which is the fourth longest behind Duke’s Jordan Wolf (48), St. John’s Kieran McArdle (44) and Albany’s Miles Thompson (41). Thirteen (8-5) of Walsh’s 28 points have been scored in Patriot League contests.
• Four other players have turned in 10 points or more this season, including sophomore attack Kevin Adams whose 15 points have been scored off goals, while senior attack Brendon McCann has split his gave evenly with 17 points on 10 goals and 7 assists. McCann is coming off a 3-goal, 1-assist performance against Cornell.
• The Raiders have relied upon the play of freshman Brandon Burke in goal to lead the defense. Burke owns a 7.07 goals-against average and a 57.6 save percentage. Prior to Tuesday’s game against Coglate where he surrendered 15 goals and made 10 saves, Burke had been ranked fifth nationally in saves per game (9.43) and was No. 2 in GAA, giving up 5.93 goals per game. In his three Patriot League appearances, he has posted a 7.00 GAA and a 56.2 save percentage.
• Junior middie Alex Kinnealey has been strong at the faceoff position, winning 61.3 percent (84-137) of the draws he has taken this season, including 59.6 percent (31-52) in conference play. Going into the Cornell game, he stood 10th nationally in faceoff winning percentage (62.7). Additionally, he paces the team with 50 ground balls.
• All-league defenseman Bobby Lawrence has been stellar in his senior season, producing a team-best 17 caused turnovers. He is ranked 11th nationally in caused turnovers per game (2.1).

Navy vs. Colgate – The Series
• Navy leads the all-time series with Colgate, 11-5, including wins in 3 of the last 5 contests.
• The two teams have met 14 times since the Midshipmen joined the Patriot League in 2004. During that span, Navy has produced a 9-5 record and outscored Colgate, 144-111.
• Five of the last six contests between the two programs has been decided by one goal, including the 2012 contest in which Navy’s Sam Jones targeted a shot with 3.4 seconds remaining in the game to lead the Mids to a 12-11 victory.
• Today’s contest marks the eighth game played in Annapolis with Navy holding a 5-2 advantage. Colgate has won each of the last two games played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, scoring a 10-9 win in 2009 and a 5-4 decision in 2011.
• Navy and Colgate have twice faced one another in the Patriot League Tournament and have been met with split results. In 2007, the Mids claimed a 15-9 win over the Raiders in the championship game, before dropping the program’s first Patriot League Tournament contest at the 2008 semifinals against eventual champion Colgate.

Kiernan Among Nation’s Top Poles
• Senior long stick defensive midfielder Pat Kiernan is one of the best at his position in the country.
• Kiernan, a 2014 Preseason All-American, was among the national leaders in both caused turnovers (12th, 2.00) and ground balls (32nd, 5.23) last season.
• He is Navy’s record holder for career caused turnovers (61), a stat introduced in 2009. With 26 caused turnovers last season, he finished the year ranked No. 3 on the Mids’ single-season list. He is also ranked ninth (14, 2012) and tied for 13th (11, 2011) on the chart.
• He is tied with ninth-place Matt Russell (2003-06) on the career ground balls list with 159, trailing eighth-place Chad Donnelly who posted 172 from 1997-2000. Meanwhile, he turned in 68 grounders last spring to etch his name in at ninth on the Mids’ single-season chart. It’s the most ground balls by a Navy player since 2008 when draw specialist Mikelis Visgauss grabbed 80.
• He is also 19th on the Mids’ career faceoff wins list, winning 24 of the 54 draws (44.4) he has taken.
• Kiernan has produced 13 career points, including a program-record 10 in 2012.
• He is tied for seventh in the country among active poles with 13 points.
• Kiernan is tied as the all-time leader in career points scored by a Navy defensemen, while his 10 goals are the most at Navy.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Navy men’s lacrosse team used a suffocating defense and a well-balanced offense to pitch an 11-3 victory over Lafayette Friday evening at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The Mids improved to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in Patriot League action, while dealing Lafayette its fourth loss of the season (1-4) and second in conference play.

“This was a heck of a win tonight,” said third-year Navy head coach Rick Sowell. “We have a lot of respect for Lafayette and we knew it would be a tough game. They have a strong defense and they are very strong in goal, but we battled.”

The two teams traded goals in the opening period before the Mids took a 2-1 lead with just 3.2 seconds left in the first thanks to the spectacular play of senior long pole Ben Sampson (Doylestown, Pa.). Sampson forced a Lafayette turnover, grabbed the ground ball and took off looking for a transition goal. He found senior attackman Sam Jones (Annapolis, Md.) in mid-stride, as Jones punched in the goal and Sampson was credited with his first collegiate assist.

Lafayette, though, would convert on its fourth extra-man opportunity of the game when Navy goalkeeper John Connors (Bellmore, N.Y.) came out of the goal and went behind the cage. Lafayette junior attackman Sonny Round recognized Connors was out of position and wheeled his pass to senior middie John Floyd who knotted the game at 2-2 with 6:19 remaining in the half.

Navy senior Austin Heneveld (East Hampton, N.Y.) gave the Mids the lead for good when he took possession of the ball from behind the cage on a restart and quickly ran around the right side of the cage and tucked his shot in over the shoulder of Lafayette keeper Jake Hyatt with 2:23 to go in the second period.

The Mids added a goal onto the scoreboard after Lafayette way flagged for its first penalty of the game with 37 seconds remaining in the half. A perfectly executed play between attackmen Patrick Keena (Vienna, Va.) and Tucker Hull(Charlotte, N.C.) gave the Mids a 4-2 advantage at the break.

Navy pushed its lead to 7-2 with just under seven minutes to play in the third quarter and featured goals by Heneveld, Jones and junior midfielder Gabe Voumard (Cape May, N.J.), who blew past midfielder Matt Confort and waltzed his way in for a doorstop goal. Following a 20-minute scoring drought, Lafayette scored its third and final goal of the game on an unassisted marker by sophomore Robert Orazietti at the 1:19 mark.

Leading 7-3 to begin the final stanza, Navy got a huge spark from rookie faceoff specialist Brady Dove (Stevensville, Md.). The Mids opened the fourth quarter by scoring four goals in the first minute and 24 seconds thanks to consecutive wins by Dove at the faceoff “x.” Heneveld picked up the ground ball on the opening draw of the fourth quarter and fed Jones who was posted up low on the left wing. Jones sent his pass to co-captain Pat Kiernan (Ridgewood, N.J.) who was running up the middle and scored his first goal of the season at the 14:47 mark. Kiernan is now tied for sixth nationally among active defensive scorers with 13 points on 10 goals and three assists over his career.

Meanwhile just 16 seconds later (14:31), Jones again found a teammate, this time fellow attackman T.J. Hanzsche(Berwyn, Pa.), who extended his point and goal-scoring streak (11 straight games) with a high-powered shot from the right wing. Just eight seconds elapsed (14:23) when Dove won the faceoff and without hesitation flipped the ball to Voumard who fed Jones for his third goal of the game. Navy’s final goal in the run came at 13:36 when senior midfielder Pat Durkin (Germantown, Md.) punched in his lone goal of the game and gave the Mids an 11-3 lead.

“It all started with Brady” said Jones about Navy’s four-goal run to open the fourth quarter. “I have a lot of respect for him. He doesn’t play with a lot of emotion, he just goes out and does his job and gives the offense an opportunity to score.”

Dove, who came into the contest ranked 17th nationally in faceoff percentage (59.8), won 12 of the 17 draws he took against the Leopards and became Navy’s record holder for faceoff wins by a freshman. Winning 67 of the 109 draws (61.5) to date, he passed previous record holder Mike Haertel who held the record for nearly 20 years. Haertel won 64 of the 122 faceoffs he took as a rookie in 1997. Dove, meanwhile, also moved up to 16th on Navy’s career faceoff wins list, passing Tommy Wallin who amassed 64 wins from 2003-07.

“Brady has been unbelievable for us,” added Sowell. “He has great poise. He might be the most important player on our team right now.

“I’ve been saying it since day one that we need to find other ways to score other than set pieces and in the last two games I think we have done a nice job of that. Tonight Brady really did a good job of generating some offense for the team.”

Navy senior close defenseman Nik Mullen (Wading River, N.Y.) and Connors in goal orchestrated a defensive effort that was nearly flawless, as the Mids surrendered the fewest goals since their 8-2 win over sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins on April 21, 2012. It’s the fewest goals the Leopards have scored since dropping a 10-3 decision to Army on March 24, 2012.

Mullen held the Leopards’ leading scorer Brian Bock (7G, 2A) to just an assist in the contest while also chipping in a career-high three caused turnovers, while Connors turned away 13 shots on goal including six in the third quarter.

“Connors was unbelievable tonight,” said Mullen. “He was on fire. He really saw the ball well and made some great doorstop saves.”

“We were pretty good down there,” said Sowell regarding Navy’s defensive effort. “Coach Wellner has done a good job of coaching our defense and I thought we played a sound game. I didn’t like all of the penalties that we committed, but credit our man-down defense for hanging tough.”

Navy was flagged for an alarming eight penalties, including multiple times when the Mids were already down a man. Remarkably, Navy was able to squelch seven of the eight man-down situations. On the year, Navy’s opponents have scored five goals on 24 attempts (20.8).

Seven different players scored goals for the Mids, while 10 different players provided points. Jones paced the Mids in the scoring column with five points on three goals and two assists. With his fourth hat trick in five games this season, Jones slipped past Eddie McKinnon (1999-02) into 16th on Navy’s career scoring list with 137 points. Meanwhile, Voumard pitched in three points on two goals and an assists and Heneveld turned in his third two-goal performance of the season.

The Mids will have little time in relishing their victory as they will play their lone regular-season mid-week game of the year on Tuesday when they make the short bus ride to Johnny Unitas Stadium where they will face Towson. Game time is slated for 7:00 pm.

Game Preview
• The Navy men’s lacrosse team (2-2, 1-1 Patriot League) seeks its second Patriot League victory of the season when the Mids play host to Lafayette (1-3, 1-1 PL) Friday evening. The 16th edition of the Navy-Lafayette series is set for a 7:00 pm faceoff at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
• The game will be streamed online for FREE via PatriotLeague.TV and NavySports.com. Live stats will also be available at NavySports.com.
• The Mids are coming off an historical victory over Holy Cross at home last Saturday. After Holy Cross trimmed Navy’s lead to one (4-3) midway through the second quarter, the Mids used a 9-0 run to blow the game open and eventually deliver Holy Cross a 21-12 loss. Navy’s starting attack combined to score 14 of the 21 goals for the Mids.
• Despite an 8-7 win over conference foe Colgate, Lafayette was unable to bottle up the momentum and instead have been on the short end of its last two games against Army (8-6) and Delaware (9-6). The Leopards and Blue Hens were knotted up (4-4) at the half, but Delaware outscored Lafayette 5-2 in the second half to cruise to the victory on Tuesday.

Taking the Field In …
10 – Navy has lost just five games (56-5) when scoring 10 or more goals since the start of the 2004 season … Navy is 10-0 under Sowell when scoring 10 or more goals (5-0 in 2012, 3-0 in 2013, 2-0 in 2014).
9 – Brady Dove needs 9 faceoff wins to tie record holder Mike Haertel (1997) for most wins by a freshman in program history with 64.
8 – Navy senior Tucker Hull has scored a combined 8 goals in the three previous games he has played against Lafayette.
7 – Hull has scored a point in each of the last 7 contests … the last time he did not score was against Lehigh on March 30, 2013. Fellow attack T.J. Hanzsche owns Navy’s longest point and goal-scoring streak, having posted a point in 10 straight games.
6 – Hanzsche scored a career-high 6 goals against Holy Cross last Saturday. It’s the most scored by a Navy player since Tucker Hull scored 6 against VMI on Feb. 11, 2012.
5 – Third-year Navy head coach Rick Sowell is 5-1 all-time against Lafayette, including a 2-0 mark as the Mids’ head coach.
4 – Friday marks Navys 4th home game this season. The last time Navy played 4 of its first 5 games at home was in 2010 when the Mids faced VMI (W, 16-5), Loyola (L, 8-7 OT), North Carolina (L, 11-4) and Bucknell (W, 8-7) at home with a trip to Lehigh (W, 8-3) prior to Bucknell.
3 – Sowell is 3 wins from earning his 100th collegiate victory. He owns a 97-99 record in 15 years as a head coach.
2 – Navy senior attack Sam Jones (74G, 48A) needs 2 assists to become just the seventh active player in DI lacrosse to have 60 career goals and 50 career assists. ClassmateTucker Hull is one of the active six to have achieved this with 66 goals and 51 assists.
1 – Co-captain Pat Kiernan needs just 1 ground ball to move into 10th on Navy’s all-time ground balls leader board … he owns 154.

Scouting the Leopards
• Second-year head coach Jim Rogalski has his Lafayette Leopards nipping at the heels of some of the better programs in DI lacrosse this season. While the Leopards are 1-3 on the year, they’ve lost their last two games by two goals each.
• Lafayette’s lone win of the year was an 8-7 victory over Colgate, while its losses have been against Stony Brook (18-10), Army (8-6) and Delaware (9-6).
• The attack combo of Brian Bock and Sonny Round has led the way, as the two have produced a team-best 8 points. Bock has produced a team-high 7 goals and 1 assist, while Round has posted 3 goals and a team-high 5 assists. Sophomore Robert Orazietti and middie Morgan Westby have also contributed four goals.
• Lafayette has had to rely upon a stiff defense to provide the offense an opportunity to possess the ball. The Leopards are 66th among the 67 teams in DI lacrosse in faceoff winning percentage, winning just 27.1 percent of their draws. Sophomore Adam Broeckaert is 13 for 53 (.245) and rookie Erik Cannon is 10 for 29 (.345).
• Senior Jake Hyatt has been a mainstay in goal for the Leopards with an 11.14 goals-against average and a 54.3 save percentage. Hyatt’s 12.67 saves per game average stands 10th nationally. However, sophomore Ben Falcone made the start Tuesday against Delaware where he surrendered 9 goals and made just 6 saves.

Navy vs. Lafayette – The Series
• Friday’s contest marks the 16th meeting between the two programs, and the 12th since the Midshipmen joined the Patriot League in 2004. Navy leads the series, 14-1.
• The two teams first met in 1926 with Navy earning a 23-0 win … Navy and Lafayette battled one another three times between 1929-31 … the 1931 contest was the last time the two programs had met before the Mids joined the Patriot League.
• The Mids won 10 straight against the Leopards before dropping the program’s only loss to Lafayette on March 12, 2010 in Easton.
• Navy has scored double digits in 12 of the 15 games, while the Mids have held Lafayette to single digits 13 times.
• In the 15-game history, the Mids have outscored the Leopards, 192-75 … since joining the league in `04, Navy has outscored Lafayette, 128-74.

Weekend Rewind
• The Mids are coming off an historical victory over Holy Cross at home last Saturday. After Holy Cross trimmed Navy’s lead to one (4-3) midway through the second quarter, the Mids used a 9-0 run to blow the game open and eventually deliver Holy Cross a 21-12 loss.
• Navy has now won 10 of the 11 games played in the series, including all 5 played in Annapolis.
• The 21 goals were the most scored by Navy since it dealt Holy Cross a 23-5 loss on April 18, 2004. The nine-goal victory marked its largest margin of victory over a Patriot League team since its 12-3 win over the Crusaders in 2010. Meanwhile, the 33 combined goals are the most since second-ranked Virginia delivered a 24-13 blow to the Mids in Charlottesville on March 4, 1995.
• Navy’s starting attack combined to score 14 of the 21 goals for the Mids, including 6 byT.J. Hanzsche. The six goals are the most scored by a Navy player since Tucker Hullscored six against VMI on Feb. 11, 2012.
• Hazsche, Hull and Taylor Harris (2006) are the only three Navy players to score six or more goals in a game since the beginning of the 1991 campaign.
• It’s also tied as the most goals scored by a Navy player in a Patriot League game since the Mids joined the league in 2004.
• Fellow attack Sam Jones turned in a career-high tying 5 goals, while Hull chipped in three goals.
• Attack men T.J. Hanzsche and Tucker Hull extended their point scoring streaks. Hanzsche owns a team-best 10-game point and goal-scoring streak, while Hull has produced a point in 7 straight games. Hull’s consecutive games with an assist streak came to an end, however, at 4.
• Midfielder Gabe Voumard and attack Patrick Keena both produced career highs in points with four apiece.
• Freshman midfielder Colin Flounlacker scored his first collegiate goal.
• Freshman faceoff specialist Brady Dove won 19 of the 34 draws against Holy Cross. The 19 wins by Dove tied as the third most in program history, just one off the record set in 1995 and later tied in 2004. It’s the most wins since Logan West won 19 against Bucknell on March 3, 2012. The 34 attempts are the most in school history, improving upon the previous mark of 32 set by Dan Sullivan (twice) in 1995.
• Navy used a 7-0 run in a nine-goal quarter to end the first half of the game with an 11-3 lead. The last time Navy scored nine goals in a quarter was in its 23-5 win over Holy Cross in 2004 when the Mids scored nine goals not once, but twice in the game (first and third quarters).

Game Preview
• The Navy men’s lacrosse team (1-2, 0-1 Patriot League) will look to capture its first win in Patriot League action on Saturday when the Mids play host to Holy Cross (0-3, 0-1 PL). The 11th edition of the Navy-Holy Cross series is set for an 11:00 am faceoff at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
• The game will be streamed online for FREE via PatriotLeague.TV and NavySports.com. Live stats will also be available at NavySports.com.
• Navy held a 2-0 advantage over Bucknell through the first quarter, but the Bison went on a 4-0 run in the second quarter to secure a lead it would not relinquish. Attack Sean Doyle paced the Bison with four goals, while Bucknell’s defense held Navy’s leading scorer Sam Jones scoreless for only the sixth time in his 41 collegiate game appearances.
• Holy Cross is seeking its first win of the season after dropping its third in a row on Tuesday with a 17-9 loss at Harvard. Junior middie Terry McKenna led the way for the Crusaders with 4 goals.

Taking the Field In …
10 – Senior attack Sam Jones’ 10-point performance against VMI in the opener marked the most points scored by a Navy player since March 20, 1991, when Dennis Nealon recorded 12 (4G, 8A) against Washington College. It is tied (Kevin O’Shea, Hartford) as the most points scored by a player in DI lax this season.
9 – Starting attack T.J. Hanzsche owns a team-best 9-game goal-scoring streak. The last time he did not score a goal was on March 12 against Towson
8 – 8 different players on Navy’s roster have scored goals against Holy Cross, including senior attack Tucker Hull who has produced 5 goals and 7 assists in 3 games against the Crusaders.
7 – Navy has reached double digits in 7 of the 10 games (8 in 2005 and 2011, 5 in 2013) it has played against Holy Cross. Navy has lost just five games (55-5) when scoring 10 or more goals since the start of the 2004 season … Navy is 9-0 under Sowell when scoring 10 or more goals (5-0 in 2012, 3-0 in 2013, 1-0 in 2014)
6 – Co-captain Pat Kiernan needs 6 ground balls to move into 10th on Navy’s all-time ground balls leader board … he owns 149.
5 – Pat Kiernan is tied for 5th nationally in career scoring by a defenseman with 12 points (9G, 3A).
4 – Third-year head coach Rick Sowell is 4 wins from earning his 100th collegiate victory. He owns a 96-99 record in 15 years as a head coach.
3 – Navy senior attack Sam Jones needs 3 goals to join the Mids’ all-time top 20 goals scored list … he owns 69 heading into Saturday’s contest.
2 – Senior Austin Heneveld, who came into the season having scored multiple goals just once in his career, has scored 2 goals in 2 games this year.
1 – Over the last six seasons, 29 (11-18) of the Mids’ 88 contests have been decided by 1 goal.

Scouting the Crusaders
• Coming off a breakout season that saw Jim Morrissey’s Holy Cross squad put together a 7-8 record, the Crusaders have struggled out of the gates in 2014. Facing a challenging slate, Holy Cross dropped a 15-13 decision to 19th-ranked St. John’s in its opener. Last Saturday Holy Cross opened its Patriot League season by playing host to ninth-ranked Loyola, who dealt the Crusaders a 16-4 loss. On Tuesday, the Crusaders traveled to Harvard with Crimson scoring a 17-9 victory.
• Tuesday’s game at Harvard marked the start of four straight games on the road for Holy Cross, who will face Richmond next Tuesday, followed by a trip to West Point to meet Army on March 8.
• Junior midfielder Terry McKenna and sophomore attack Sean Wilkinson have been solid in the opening weeks. McKenna leads the team with 9 points on 7 goals and a pair of assists. He was responsible for 4 goals in the loss at Harvard. Meanwhile, Wilkinson has produced 8 points on 5 goals and 3 assists. Wilkinson was sensational in the opener against St. John’s, scoring 4 goals and adding 2 assists.
• The Crusaders have surrendered 48 goals in their three games (16.00) with sophomore Michael Ortlieb standing between the pipes for 157 of the 180 minutes. Ortlieb owns a 16.79 goals-against average and a 38.0 save percentage.
• Freshman Ben Williams has taken over the faceoff duties where he has won 50.7 percent (36-71) of the draws to date. He had a strong outing against Harvard where he won 15 of the 25 faceoffs (.600).
• Holy Cross has scored 12 of its 26 goals in the fourth quarter. It has been outscored 39-14 in the other three quarters of play.

Navy vs. Holy Cross – The Series
• Saturday’s contest marks just the 11th meeting between Navy and Holy Cross … the Mids own a 9-1 advantage in the series, including a 23-5 victory over the Crusaders in the inaugural meeting in Annapolis in 2004.
• Navy and Holy Cross have played one another three times in Worcester, Mass. (2005, `09, `11) and four times in Annapolis (2004, `06, `10, `12).
• Meanwhile, Navy and Holy Cross have met on neutral three times.
• In 2007, the two programs faced one another at SMU’s Ford Stadium where the Mids dealt Holy Cross a 12-2 loss. It was Navy’s first trip to Texas since the Mids defeated Johns Hopkins, 9-6, on May 8, 1971, at the Houston Astrodome.
• In 2008, Navy and Holy Cross were part of the Ford Patriot Cup which featured two high school games, along with two Div. I men’s lax games (Rutgers vs. Army). Navy scored a 16-3 win over the Crusaders at Texas Stadium, the former home of the Dallas Cowboys.
• Last year Holy Cross earned its first victory over the Midshipmen in 10 tries, securing a 7-5 victory on the shoulders of Terry McKenna who netted four goals for the Crusaders. The game was played at Citi Field, the home of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets. It was just the second Div. I men’s lacrosse game played at a Major League Baseball venue.
• Navy has scored eight or more goals in nine of the 10 games, while putting up double-figure goals in seven of the 10 (8 in 2005 and 2011) … the Mids’ defense, meanwhile, has held Holy Cross to five or fewer goals in eight of the 10 games. The Crusaders have scored seven goals in each of the last two games against the Mids.

National Leader Board
• According to the latest national statistics released on Monday by the NCAA, the Mids are ranked among the top 20 in five categories.
• After finishing outside of the top 30 in each of the last five years in faceoff percentage, Navy rookie Brady Dove has the Mids among the top 15. Dove stands 17th in the individual rankings, winning 62.1 percent (36-58) of the draws he has taken, while Navy as a team is ranked 13th with a 63.1 faceoff winn percentage.
• Navy’s man-down defense has been stout this spring, warding off 9 of the potential 11 extra-man goals by its opponent. The Mids are ranked 17th nationally in man-down defense (18.8)
• The Mids are also ranked among the top 20 in ground balls per game (18th, 32.33), scoring margin (18th, +3.00) and scoring defense (19th, 7.67).

Kiernan Among Nation’s Top Poles
• Senior long stick defensive midfielder Pat Kiernan is one of the best at his position in the country.
• Kiernan, a 2014 Preseason All-American, was among the national leaders in both caused turnovers (12th, 2.00) and ground balls (32nd, 5.23) last season.
• He is Navy’s record holder for career caused turnovers (55), a stat introduced in 2009 … with 26 caused turnovers last season, he finished the year ranked No. 3 on the Mids’ single-season list … he is also ranked ninth (14, 2012) and tied for 13th (11, 2011) on the chart.
• He is tied for 11th on Navy’s career ground balls list with 149, 6 shy of joining the Mids’ all-time top-10 list … meanwhile, he turned in 68 grounders last spring to etch his name in at ninth on the Mids’ single-season chart … it’s the most ground balls by a Navy player since 2008 when draw specialist Mikelis Visgauss grabbed 80.
• He is also 19th on the Mids’ career faceoff wins list, winning 24 of the 54 draws (44.4) he has taken.
• Kiernan has produced 12 career points, including a program-record 10 in 2012.
• He is tied for fifth in the country among active poles with 12 points behind Brown’s Roger Ferguson (28), Bellarmine’s Bobby Schmitt (21), Virginia transfer (from Lynchburg) Josephs Lisicky (16) and Syracuse’s Matt Harris (14). Air Force’s Kyle O’Brien, Hartford’s Alex Matarazzo and Villanova’s John LoCascio also have 12 points going into the weekend.
• Kiernan is second all-time in career points scored by a Navy defensemen, while his 9 goals are the most at Navy.

ANNAPOLIS, Md.—The Navy football team, coming off a 2013 campaign that saw the Midsfinish with a 9-4 record, win the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy for the ninth time in the last 11 years, qualify for a bowl game for the 10th time in the last 11 years, win a bowl game for just the eighth time in school history and defeat Army for a series-record 12th-consecutive year, will face a challenging 2014 schedule that features five games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and three neutral site games in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Additionally, this year marks Navy’s final year as an independent as the Mids will join the American Athletic Conference in 2015.

The Mids will play seven teams that were bowl eligible in 2013, including two of college football’s most storied programs, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

“This exceptional schedule is terrific for our fans to attend up to eight games within a 25 minute drive of Annapolis,” said Naval Academy Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk. “The base season ticket package covers our traditional home games in Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, while the additional match-ups in NFL venues allow for optional purchasing opportunities for fans to be there for all the action, all fall long. Navy football is Navy family and this is a great schedule for all to see the Midshipmen in some of the finest venues in the nation right in our backyard.”

“This will once again be an incredibly challenging schedule for our football team,” said Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalo. “With seven teams on our schedule that were bowl eligible a year ago, our team will have to work extremely hard this off-season to accomplish all of our goals next year. It’s also exciting to have eight games locally (five in Annapolis, two in Baltimore, one in Landover) as it will give the thousands of Navy fans in the area, and even those who are looking for a college team to root for and have never seen us play, an opportunity to come out and support this incredible group of young men.”

Navy will open up the 2014 campaign with a bang as it plays host to the Ohio State Buckeyes at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 12 noon. Ohio State is coming off a 12-2 season and is 24-2 over the last two years under Urban Meyer. This will be the second time in six years that Navy has opened up against Ohio State. In 2009, Navy went into Columbus and nearly pulled off the upset before losing 31-27 on an intercepted two-point conversion that was returned for two points in the final minute.

The following week (Sept. 6), Navy will travel to future American Athletic Conference foe Temple (2-10 in 2013), as the two teams will tangle at Lincoln Financial Field. The Mids are 10-0 all-time at Lincoln Financial (9-0 vs. Army, 1-0 vs. Temple).

The Mids will be back on the road the following week (Sept. 13) as they travel to San Marcos, Texas to take on the Bobcats of Texas State (6-6 in 2013). It will be Navy’s first trip to San Marcos.

The Mids will play their first game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 20 when Navy plays host to one of the Big Ten’s newest members, Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights were 6-7 a year ago and played in the Pinstripe Bowl against Notre Dame.

Navy will be looking for payback the following week as it plays host to Western Kentucky on Saturday, Sept. 27. The Hilltoppers are coming off an 8-4 campaign, including a 19-7 victory over Navy in a game that starting quarterback Keenan Reynolds was knocked out of in the second quarter with a helmet-to-helmet hit.

Navy travels to Colorado Springs on Saturday, Oct. 4 to take on Air Force in the first game of the round-robin competition between Navy, Air Force and Army for the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy. Navy defeated Air Force last year, 28-10, in Annapolis and will look to beat Air Force for the 10th time in the last 12 meetings. Air Force finished 2-10 a year ago.

Navy returns home to face VMI on Oct. 11 and then, after a week off, will welcome San Jose State on Oct. 25 in a rematch of one of the best games in all of college football a year ago. The Spartans, who finished 6-6 on the year including an upset of undefeated Fresno State in the season finale, lost to Navy a year ago, 58-52, in triple overtime as Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds ran for an NCAA-record (for a quarterback) seven rushing touchdowns, including the game-winning 25-yard touchdown run.

The following week the Mids will take the short trip down Route 50 to take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (9-4) at FedExField in Washington, DC. Last year, Notre Dame outlasted Navy, 38-34, in a game that featured an incredible nine lead changes. This will be the first meeting between Navy and Notre Dame at FedExField since 1998.

After another off-week, the Mids return to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to face a Georgia Southern team (Nov. 15) that will be in its first full year as a Football Bowl Subdivision team. Last year, as a transitional FBS squad, the Eagles went 7-4 including a 26-20 upset victory over Florida in The Swamp.

After a third off-week in six weeks, the Mids will return to the gridiron on Friday, Nov. 28to take on South Alabama (6-6) in Mobile, Ala. It will be Navy’s first trip to Mobile to play the Jaguars.

Navy will have a fourth off-week after the South Alabama game before playing Service Academy rival Army at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium. Navy will be going for a record 13th win in a row against its biggest rival. It will be the first Army-Navy game in Baltimore since 2007 when the Mids beat the Black Knights, 38-3. Army head coach Jeff Monken was an assistant at Navy for that game.

CBS Sports has the rights to all of Navy’s home football games and either CBS Sports or CBS Sports Network will televise all five games played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, as well as the neutral site games against Ohio State and Notre Dame. CBS is home for the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA.

Season tickets go on sale today at navysports.com or by calling 1-800-US4-NAVY.

With six wins in 2014, the Mids will appear in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. A date has not been set for the bowl game.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — For a second consecutive year, Georgetown attack Jeff Fountain drove a dagger through the hearts of the Navy lacrosse faithful as his goal just under two minutes into overtime guided the Hoyas (2-0) to a 9-8 victory over the Mids (1-1) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

A classic Navy-Georgetown battle, Saturday’s contest marked the sixth time in the last seven meetings the game has been decided by one goal and ironically all six have been won by the Hoyas. Four of the six have gone into extra minutes, including each of the last three games played in Annapolis (2008, 2010, 2014). Additionally, each of the last three games have been won by Georgetown by a final score of 9-8.

“It was a heck of a game, first and foremost,” said third-year Navy head coach Rick Sowell. “You had two solid teams and it was just a great battle. It was one of those games where you hate to see someone lose. It seems like Georgetown just has Navy’s number.”

Added Sowell, “Overall I was very proud of the effort our team put forward. I was proud of them. We are on the right course. I really do believe there is success ahead for this team.”

Navy got on the scoreboard first (13:02, 1 Qtr) when senior attack Sam Jones’ (Annapolis, Md.) five-yard shot was initially saved by junior keeper Jack Haley and took a hop off the ground and back into the net. The two teams exchanged goals over the remainder of the period with the Mids taking a 2-1 advantage into the second quarter.

Georgetown was able to score a pair of goals in the first two minutes of the second stanza to quickly shift the momentum into the sticks of the Hoyas. An exchange of turnovers between both teams on the offensive end of the field for the Hoyas left Navy’s goal unmanned and Peter Conley was quick to feed Devon Lewis for the game-tying goal at 13:25. Just six seconds later, Georgetown’s Tyler Knarr claimed the first of his 12 faceoff wins on the day and fed Conley to give the Hoyas a 3-2 advantage.

Navy was able to even the game midway through the quarter when Georgetown freshman defender Michael Mayer was unable to corral a loose ball in front of the Hoyas’ goal and Jones quickly picked the ball up and poked it in the net.

Georgetown, however, outscored the Mids 3-0 over the final minutes to take a 6-3 lead into the half.

The Hoyas kept it rolling in the third when junior midfielder Charles McCormick, who was suspended for the first quarter of play in the game, fired in his second goal of the afternoon, pushing the lead to four at 7-3 with 9:26 to play in the third quarter.

After being outscored 6-1 over better than 20 minutes of action, a transition goal at 8:19 in the third by Navy defensive midfielder Alex Heyward (Charlotte, N.C.) sparked a 3-0 run by the Mids. It was Heyward’s first collegiate goal as now 12 players have scored goals for the Midshipmen this season.

Navy clipped the Hoyas’ lead to 7-5 when Jones picked up by the ball off a saved shot by teammate Austin Heneveld(East Hampton, N.Y.) and tossed it in the back of the net at 13:38 in the fourth. The Mids then got to within one when sophomore attack T.J. Hanzsche (Berwyn, Pa.) scored off a pick by defenseman Nik Mullen (Wading River, N.Y.) in transition.

Georgetown pushed its lead back to two (8-6) with 7:04 to play when Fountain won a foot race against Mullen and fired off a shot from the left corner.

Navy, though, continued to fight back and with 4:59 Hanzsche fired in his second goal of the game to again trim the Hoyas’ lead to one.

With 1:44 left in regulation, Navy was flagged for a cross check, giving the Hoyas their sixth extra-man opportunity. Following a flurry of shots by Reilly O’Connor, Navy defensive midfielder Brendan Gaine (Bay Shore, N.Y.) was able to come up with the loose ball and was off to the races. Gaine sent a pass to pole Pat Kiernan (Ridgewood, N.J.) in mid-stride who then found Jones at the top of the box. Jones made the extra pass to Hanzsche who was set up five yards out on the right side and Hanzsche scored the game-tying goal with the Mids a man down with just 53 seconds remaining in the game setting up the extra frame. It was the second straight game Navy has scored a man-down goal.

Knarr’s faceoff win gave Georgetown possession to begin overtime and with 2:42 a 30-second timer-on was assessed to the Hoyas. Possession should have expired at 2:12, however, the officials never blew the whistle and instead Fountain curled around the left side of the goal and fired off a spectacular low-to-low shot to lead the Hoyas to victory with 2:08 on the clock.

“The officials told us there were two seconds left and then they said seven, so I really don’t know how much time was left,” said Sowell regarding Georgetown’s timer-on possession. “It was just unfortunate we didn’t have a chance to win it at the end. My team fought their way back into the game, but Georgetown made the play when they needed it, so give them credit.”

Jones finished the game with a team-high tying three goals and one assist. Jones, who registered his 12th career hat trick, moved into 20th on the Mids’ career points list with 116. Hanzsche, meanwhile, produced his second collegiate hat trick and extended his point and goal-scoring streak to a team-best eight straight games.

Sophomore keeper John Connors (Bellmore, N.Y.) made a career-high 17 saves, marking the best day in goal for a Navy goalie since Nolan Hickey stopped 18 shots against Bucknell a year ago.

Rookie Brady Dove (Stevensville, Md.) won eight of the 19 draws he took against Knarr who was among the nation’s leaders a year ago. Dove won six of the 10 draws in the opening half, but Knarr was able to adjust in the second half and Dove went on to win just twice among his nine second half faceoffs.

Jeff Fountain, Peter Conley, Devon Lewis and Charlie McCormick scored two goals apiece for the Hoyas, while Conley added a pair of assists.

The Mids open Patriot League play next Saturday when they travel to Lewisburg, Pa. to battle Bucknell at Christy Mathewson Stadium beginning at 3:00 pm .